


Tell Me That You'll Wait For Me

by Lilas (pegasus_01)



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: And a few tries, BAMF Astrid Hofferson, Because it's not as easy as it looks when you're not riding on dragons, F/M, Hiccup and Toothless reunited, Hiccup is a good dad, Hiccup searches for the Hidden World after the movie, It takes him a few years, Post-How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Zephyr and Nuffkin are the cutest and I love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 21:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pegasus_01/pseuds/Lilas
Summary: After the events of The Hidden World, Hiccup is determined to see Toothless again. It takes him a few years and a couple (six) tries.





	Tell Me That You'll Wait For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Here there be spoilers for the The Hidden World!
> 
> Written in a 5+1 sort of format. Not beta'ed. All typos and mistakes are my own.

0.

The first day, Hiccup sat by the cliff and stared out at the sea in silence. When Astrid sat by him, he tilted his head to the side until it rested against her shoulder. When his mother joined them on his other side, he squeezed her hand back when she gripped his tightly. As the day passed, he could hear the rest of his family and friends around him but he never once shifted his gaze from the horizon. He could hear Gobber sniffling behind him and Fishlegs crying hysterically next to him. The twins and Snoutlout were several yards away blowing up his Zippleback gas reserves with some leftover lit up Monstruous Nightmare gel. Eret’s wet laughter after a particularly loud explosion clued him in that someone had likely lost an eyebrow or maybe some hair.

Day turned to dusk turned to night, and as one by one his friends left to find their tents and sleeping bags, he remained. Hiccup blinked tired eyes and from one moment to the next the sun was gone and the stars were shining. A sharp squeeze of his hand had him blinking again and the northern lights were dancing in the sky, the same pale green he had grown up seeing from Berk. At some point, when the sky was inky black, he felt his mother’s hand slide from his as she stood up, soft fingers trailing through his hair before he was left alone.

No, not alone. He finally turned his head and hid his face into the crook of Astrid’s neck, inhaling her familiar scent and letting it soothe him.

“He’s really gone,” he whispered, his first words since Toothless had disappeared beyond the horizon.

Calloused fingers slipped into his hair and soft lips pressed onto his forehead. “They all are,” Astrid whispered back. He could hear the enormity of the realization in her voice and he blinked back tears.

He turned his head just enough so he could stare at the starry sky, his eyes automatically looking for shadows against the darkness that were no longer there; that would never be there again. They watched silently as the lights danced and faded in the sky only to reappear again a short while later. They bore witness to the passing hours as the sky faded from deep blue to soft purple and finally to pale pink with the coming of the sun. Hiccup held his breath as his first day without Toothless began and he turned his head once again to hide it in the curve of Astrid’s shoulder in a poor attempt to hide from the oncoming daylight. 

Maybe if he didn’t acknowledge it, it wouldn’t come.

“Hiccup.”

He remained silent.

“Hiccup, look at me.” Her voice was soft with a steel edge, and he could never say no when she spoke with that tone of command. “It doesn’t have to be goodbye forever. It could just be a see you later.”

He stared at her for a moment before a bitter bark of laughter escaped him. “He’s _gone_ , Astrid. They’re _all_ gone. They left to a place we can never follow.”

“You know, Hiccup,” she said, her voice light and teasing, “before there were dragons, there were boats. Vikings have a reputation far and wide as the most expert sailors in the world.” He looked up at her, eyes wide as the implication of her words seeped into his bones. “Some of us even participated in yearly regattas in case you’ve forgotten.”

He couldn’t help but grin at her words as he felt a flicker of hope ignite in his chest.

That first summer, the Hooligans spent it clearing trees to build houses, a forge, and a great hall. Hiccup spent most of it delegating tasks, helping with the construction, and designing the new port and how, exactly, anyone would get to and from the port when the entire island they had landed on was a jagged coastline of cliffs with no natural beaches. They worked tirelessly and when winter rolled around, they discovered that their new home had slightly better weather than Berk, with longer days and less precipitation to dampen the wood. They took advantage of the sunnier and drier days to build and build and build until they had a home for every family, a great hall to rival that of Berk, and another statue of Stoick the Vast to watch over them.

The second summer, Hiccup enlisted the help of the strongest and most agile (and the craziest) tribespeople to dangle from ropes and carve stairs into the cliff face. He constructed wooden beams to support them as they got closer to the ocean and installed wooden planks to each step for traction. He delegated construction of the port to Gobber, and asked Fishlegs to supervise the building of the boats. That winter, they learned that winter on New Berk was truly unpredictable and watched from the warmth of their homes and the hearth of the great hall as several feet of snow blanketed their island. 

During one of the lulls in the storms, Hiccup wandered to the cliff where he’d last been with Toothless and stared out to sea. He imaged Toothless flying back to him, a herd of dragons behind him. He acknowledged Astrid with a squeeze of her hand as she slipped it into his and tilted his head until it rested on top of hers.

“I think it’s time,” she said as she squeezed his hand back.

He nodded silently, imagining a black blur bobbing in the distant sky.

They got married toward the end of winter under Stoick’s statue. Hiccup made them individualized bronze buckles to hold their fur pelts, an image of Toothless for himself and Stormfly’s head for Astrid. He asked Gobber to stand in for his father and tried to pretend there wasn’t a hole in his heart and at his side where Toothless should have been during the ceremony. Afterwards, he and Astrid found their way back to the cliff, their friends and family surrounding them. 

“I miss him.” He sighed and blinked back tears. “I miss all of them.”

Astrid smiled softly. “What are you going to do about it?”

Hiccup grinned. “Probably something stupid.”

“Good.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly.

That spring, Astrid became pregnant and for the first time since he’d watched his best friend fly away, he didn’t think about following him.

***********

1.

Zephyr was one year old the first time Hiccup and Astrid sailed to find the Hidden World. Hiccup spent the summer of Astrid’s pregnancy with Fishlegs to learn how to sail properly. He knew how, theoretically–he was the Chief’s son after all–but he’d been as good at it as everything else that hadn’t been related to dragon training. So he learned how to hoist a sail and tie a rope so it wouldn’t unravel and hit him in the face. 

He spent it with Astrid, his mother, and Eret making maps and plotting possible courses to the Hidden World. That first summer after the dragons left, he had written down as much as he could remember from his flight on Stormfly’s back, but, to be truthful, he hadn’t been paying enough attention. He hadn’t looked at his compass or marked their heading on the way there, and he had been too preoccupied with Toothless on the way back. He had a vague idea where it might be, but without dragons to lead the way and help him spot it from afar, he knew it would take time before they found it again. 

The villagers were supportive of the expedition, for the most part, and Valka and Gobber promised to hold down the fort. Hiccup had looked at Eret then, and felt reassured when he’d smiled and nodded. He trusted Gobber with his life, but sometimes his ideas were crazier than Hiccup’s imagination and Eret balanced him out well. He and Astrid packed enough provisions for a two-week voyage and set out toward the world’s edge on a bright and warm summer morning. 

Zephyr took to the sea as if she’d been born to it. She spent hours staring at the horizon and the clouds, at the seafoam as it broke against the hull of the ship, at the whales as they broke the surface of the water and crashed back down in great big splashes that rocked the ship. Hiccup spent hours showing her drawings of their dragons, telling her their stories and hoisting her up into the air so she’d feel the wind in her downy hair.

In the end, that first journey was not a success. They didn’t find the Hidden World and Hiccup carefully mapped out the entire area they had searched. Once back on New Berk, he settled at his table in the great hall, Zephyr in his lap and Astrid looking over his shoulder, with his mother and Eret on either side of him. Together, they plotted the course they would take the next year, and then moved on to village business.

***********

2.

The second time he tried to find the Hidden World was in the dead of winter. He’d woken from a dream where dragon hunters had found the dragons and Toothless had been captured to keep the other dragons in line. He’d woken up shaking and sweating in their bed, Astrid’s calloused hand gripping his shoulder tightly. Valka, Eret, Gobber, and Astrid had tried to talk him out of it, to convince him to wait until spring, but he couldn’t get the images out of his head. And when they couldn’t, Astrid refused to let him go alone. 

He watched Valka standing on the cliff side as they sailed away, Zephyr crying in her arms. He watched until they faded from view, and then focused on navigating the rough winter sea. He had packed them enough provisions to last three weeks despite Astrid’s protests that they only be gone for a week, and he had plotted a course similar to the one they had decided on that summer after their first unsuccessful voyage.

In the end, their second journey lasted a week and nearly ended in disaster. If it hadn’t been for Astrid’s formidable knowledge of sailing and her sheer strength, Hiccup was relatively certain he would have died in the tempestuous sea. The first hurdle had been navigating around the icebergs, the icy giants that hid most of their girth beneath the dark water. Hiccup had nearly impaled them into three before Astrid took over navigating the ship around them. 

Next were the storms. Hiccup should have seen them coming, but he had been so focused on finding the Hidden World, on finding Toothless, that he had ignored every single sign and tuned out Astrid’s increasingly frantic protests. Their survival was a testament to Fishleg’s craftsmanship, their vessel powering through gale winds and giant waves one storm after another. After the third one washed away nearly half of their provision and lightning nearly set their ship on fire, Astrid put her foot down. 

“We can’t turn back now,” Hiccup yelled over the roar of the wind. “It’s hasn’t even been a week!”

“We can’t keep going, Hiccup,” Astrid yelled back even as she fought against the wind to take them home. “We’re going to drown at this rate.”

“This ship can take it!” he argued, trying to convince her with his words, knowing full well he could never win against her in a physical fight for control of the ship.

“Hiccup,” she said, turning to look at him, and he knew, looking at her at that moment, he wouldn’t win. “It’s too dangerous. We’d be of no help to anyone dead and at the bottom of the sea. You’d leave Zephyr without her parents?”

He looked away then, hands clenched at his side. “That’s playing dirty.”

She said nothing but he could feel her stare boring a hole in the side of his head. He looked sideways and could see storm clouds brewing in the distance, chunks of ice bobbing in the water all around them. He thought of his little girl with hair as red as Stoick’s and eyes as blue as the sky. He thought about dying here and never seeing her again, never getting to introduce her to Toothless. 

He sighed. “Let’s go home.”

That winter, after they got back, Astrid became pregnant with their second child and Hiccup smiled as he imagined introducing Toothless to two little Haddocks instead of just one. 

***********

3.

Hiccup grinned as Nuffkin wobbled around the deck of the ship as Zephyr ran literal circles around him. His little blond bundle of joy was the same age as Zephyr had been the first time they had undertaken their journey toward the edge of the world. Hiccup hadn’t been happy to wait three summers before trying again, but after the disastrous attempt during the winter, he had been wholly deferential toward Astrid’s wishes. It didn’t help that she always had logic on her side. 

The first summer after the winter expedition, Astrid had been pregnant and Zephyr had grown into a rambunctious, energetic, and borderline out of control toddler. The village had also just been through a vicious winter and needed both its leaders there to help rebuild homes, replant farms, and settle arguments. So he’d allowed himself to be convinced to stay without much of a fight. At night, he plotted routes and made his best guess of where the Hidden World might be so that next year they would be more likely to find it.

The second summer, Nuffkin had still been too little at only a few months old to sail with them. This meant that Astrid would have had to stay behind. 

“Don’t you dare go without me, Hiccup,” she had said as he’d picked up his satchel to start packing. 

“But—”

“I miss Stormfly just as much as you miss Toothless, and if you leave without me and you get to see him and I don’t see her, I will disembowel you alive when you come back.”

He’d stopped to look at her and groaned. He’d have felt the same way if their positions were reversed, and so he’d dropped the idea along with his satchel immediately.

But now, six years after Toothless and the other dragons had left for the Hidden World, he and Astrid were ready to try again. Much like that first voyage, they packed enough provision for three weeks and, after a week of sailing, decided to take a break from the sea on one of the islands Hiccup had mapped out over the years. Astrid argued that it was never too early for survival training, and while he had never been a fan of it she had fond memories of camping in the forests of Berk with her parents.

“I wanna hear the story of how daddy kidnapped mommy and took her riding on a dragon!” Zephyr shouted as they sat around the campfire.

“Okay, no, I didn’t… Who told you I kidnapped her?” He glared at Astrid. She shrugged innocently. He didn’t buy her act for one minute.

“Da-gon!!” Nuffkin shouted, trying to copy his sister and clapping his little hands as loudly as possible.

Astrid scooped up Nuffkin in her arms and settled him in her lap, holding him against her as she leaned over to look at Zephyr. “It was a cloudy evening, and I had sneaked off to the cove where I had seen your father disappear to several days before.”

“Stalker,” Hiccup grumbled. Zephyr slapped his arm.

“I cornered him there, and I was asking him–”

“Interrogating.”

“–how it was that he, of all people, had bested me in the dragon arena. Then, all of sudden, I heard a noise.” Zephyr gasped softly and gripped Hiccup’s forearm. “I pushed him out of the way to get a closer look–”

“Bodily shoved me to ground by twisting my arm and nearly popping it out of my socket. And then kicking me while I was down.”

“And from the darkness a shape emerged. It was black as night with glowing green eyes, and as it locked its eyes with mine, wings as wide as a sail unfurled as it leapt up and glided straight toward me. I pushed your father to the ground and readied my axe, knowing in my bones this was the moment I had been training for, that this was when I would kill a dragon. I was ready to protect myself and your father from this beast.” Zephyr let out a small squeak and Nuffkin buried himself deeper into her chest. Astrid smiled. “But then, your father wrenched my axe from my hands and threw it across the clearing. He came between me and beast and it stopped on his command. And then, casual as can be, he said: “Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid.”

“Tooth!” Nuffkin clapped happily, reaching down to grab hold of his Nightfury plushy.

“And as mommy was running back to the village, Toothless grabbed me by the arm and flew me to the highest tree. Your daddy refused to let me down until I agreed to fly with him on Toothless’s back.”

“I hardly see how that’s kidnapping.”

“I wish I could fly on a dragon,” Zephyr sighed as she reached for her own Gronckle plushy. Much to Astrid’s constant disappointment, her children were going through an unfortunate phase where neither of them fancied the Nadder as a plushy. 

“Well,” Hiccup said as he grabbed her from the ground and settled her in his lap. “If we find the Hidden World, you just might.”

Unfortunately, three weeks passed and they were no closer to finding the Hidden World. On the upside, Zephyr and Nuffkin loved the trip and were so enchanted with the possibility of flying on dragons that they insisted they start planning their next trip as soon as they’d moored back on New Berk. 

***********

4.

Hiccup was in the hold of the ship checking how much dried fish they still had, wondering whether he and the kids could convince Astrid to let them extend their trip a few extra days, when he heard stomping above him quickly followed by a rain of dust. He sneezed loudly and groaned when he kept on sneezing as more dust came down.

“Stop that!” he shouted, waving his arms around his face as he tried to clear the air.

“DAD!” Zephyr shouted, stomping one more time and dislodging more dust. “DAD COME LOOK!”

Hiccup sighed and closed the barrel, heading up the steps and towards the bow of the ship. “Zephyr, if you’ve used your brother’s sword to skewer another fish, I will not–” 

Hiccup froze on the spot and felt his breath catch in his lungs as a wall of fog and mist rose a few meters from them. He could hear the noise of the waterfalls and if he strained his eyes, he thought he could spot some of the rocks hidden in the fog. He felt the ship come to a sudden halt and looked to the stern, spotting Astrid next to where the anchor should have been. He turned back to the bow and, slowly, as if in a trance, made his way to where Zephyr and Nuffkin stood, little bodies straining as far out over the water as they could. Without thinking, he pulled them back and then did the same himself.

“Did we find it?” Zephyr asked, jumping in place excitedly, her little body practically vibrating. “Is this it?”

Hiccup swallowed past the knot in his throat and nodded. “The Hidden World.”

“Dwagons!” Nuffkin shouted, running in circles around his sister at the same time that she yelled “DRAGONS!” in triumph.

He felt calloused hands squeeze his neck and closed his eyes, head dipping forward as he took in a deep, shaky breath. 

“We found it.”

He nodded.

“Now what?”

He laughed wetly. “Good question.”

“Dad, dad!” Zephyr called out as she wiggled under his arm and leaned forward. “Where are the dragons?”

Astrid handed him a binocular and he swept the area careful, trying to discern any shadows beyond the mist and the fog. “Do you see anything?” he asked Astrid, knowing without having to look that she would be looking through her own pair.

“No,” she replied, frustration evident in her voice. “I guess there’s not much use for a watch when the entrance to your home is a massive waterfall that ends in jagged rocks that will destroy any ship that happens to fall through it and will most certainly kill anyone on said ship. Not to mention that when we went in, we flew for a while after we’d cleared the waterfall before we even got to the edge of the entrance.”

He hummed. “I guess we wait, then.”

They stayed moored by the entrance for a week before he and Astrid decided to call it quits. Zephyr and Nuffkin became restless and bored after four days, which made them worse than newly hatched Terrible Terrors. This in turn made Astrid’s tolerance for their whining and shenanigans shorter and her patience more volatile. It keenly reminded Hiccup of their youth when he was more likely to get hit than kissed. But it was when Nuffkin nearly set fire to the ship after an argument with his sister that they decided it was time to leave. 

Six years after Toothless and the other dragons left, they’d finally found the Hidden World. Now it was only a matter of time.

***********

5.

The next summer they set out for the Hidden World just the four of them. It had taken Hiccup all year (along with some severe threats, promises, and bribes from Astrid, Gobber, Valka, and Eret) to convince everyone else on New Berk not to tag along. He understood the tribe’s excitement and eagerness to see their dragons again, but Hiccup was weary of what it would look like if an armada with the Hooligan’s colors was suddenly camping around a waterfall in the middle of the sea. He was afraid of both the dragons retaliating if they thought they were an invading force trying to destroy their world, or warlords deducing the truth and trying to mount an attack on the dragons’ world. 

“Are we there yet?”

Hiccup sighed and looked over at Zephyr as she swung an arm over the side of the ship, her other arm bent at the elbow and leaning against the railing with her hand in a fist holding her head up. “No.”

“How much longer?”

“We’ll get there when we get there,” he replied.

“But I’m boooooooored.”

“Zephyr.”

“Daaaaad!”

He turned back around and raised an eyebrow at his little girl. She sighed dramatically and picked at the wood under her arm. He frowned at her. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

She hummed. He stayed silent. He had learned that when it came to talking, like most everything about his little girl, she was a lot like him. Give her enough space and silence, and she caved. “Novax said there’s no such thing as dragons.”

Hiccup froze for several seconds before he realized he’d stopped breathing all together and forced himself to relax. “He’s wrong.” Blue eyes the mirror image of her mother’s glanced up at him for a second before turning to glare at the wood beneath her fingers. “Zephyr, look at me.” He waited patiently until she did. “Dragons are real. Vikings and dragons fought for three hundred years before–”

“Before you and Toothless ended the war. I know, so you’ve said.”

“So has every adult on New Berk said,” he reminded her. “You’re going to believe a little runt like Novax over your grandmother? Gobber? Over Snotlout?” 

She snorted. “Yeah, I guess Uncle Snotlout would never willingly agree with anything you said if it weren’t true.”

He smiled. “You’ll see. Maybe not this time, or the next, but there’ll come a day when we get to the entrance and one of our dragons will be waiting for us. And then, your mom and I will take you and your brother riding.”

She ran to him and grabbed hold of his hands, pulling him forcefully to his knees to be closer to her height. “You promise?”

“Of course. Why else do you think we keep bringing you guys along instead of dumping you at grandma’s?”

She lunged at him then, hugging him as tightly as she could and squealing in his ear. When she let go, she bounced around the deck a few times, mumbling to herself. Hiccup watched her, amused, before he turned back to his map, checked his compass, and adjusted their heading slightly. They should be there in a day or two, and he hoped, deep in his heart, that this year would be the one he’d see Toothless again. That this year would be the one he would ride in the sky once again. 

“Dad?” Zephyr asked from behind him and he turned around to look at her. “Are we there yet?”

He groaned and she ran off toward her mother, her laughter ringing in his ears. That year, they did not see any dragons. They anchored by the entrance for a week before finding the nearest island to camp out for a few days to let the kids run around and exhaust themselves. They tried again for another week after that, and when Nuffkin ran out of patience and, once again, set the ship on fire (Hiccup had no idea how he kept doing that), they decided to head home and try again the next year.

***********

6.

Their sixth voyage was the shortest of them all. They’d been anchored near the entrance to the Hidden World for a couple of days when Hiccup saw them. Two heads peaked out from the edges of the rock marking the waterfall, their outlines barely visible through the fog and the mist. He’d pulled out his binocular to try and get a closer look and inhaled a sharp, surprised breath. It was a Zippleback. He’d had to physically stop himself with a hand to his mouth from calling out to Astrid or screaming Barf and Belch’s names. He had no idea if this dragon was friendly or wild, and he couldn’t risk it, not with his family on the ship with him.

If this was a wild Zippleback, it might attack as soon as it realized they were there observing the entrance. Toothless might have even ordered it to attack first and never wait to ask questions. That’s what he would have done if he were Toothless, and after being glued at the hip with his dragon for six years, Hiccup liked to think that he knew how he thought. 

So he remained quiet, and when he heard the planks behind him creaking, he put out a hand with his fist closed and listened as the noise stopped abruptly. He and Astrid had drilled into Zephyr and Nuffkin’s heads that while dragons could be friendly and exciting, wild ones could be unpredictable and dangerous. They had taught their children that if he or Astrid gave the signal that they had to be quiet; there could be no talking, arguments, or questions until they were given the all clear. Neither he nor Astrid had minced their words when describing the consequences for not following the rule, the least of which was being banned from coming to another voyage for the rest of their lives.

He felt Astrid come to a stand next to him and silently handed her the binocular, slowly lifting his hand and pointing it in the direction of the barely visible heads. He felt her stiffen up next to him and saw her hand cover her mouth as well. He turned to look at her and saw her lips pressed together as she glanced at him.

Now what? she mouthed to him

He shrugged. She sighed and handed him the binoculars. She gestured behind her and he nodded. As she made her way silently toward the children, he continued to watch the shadow of the heads bobbing and weaving. The fog never cleared and after what felt like forever, the shadow disappeared and the tension in his body along with it.

“All clear,” he called out, and two pairs of little feet came stomping toward him. 

“Is it still here? Did you see it? What was it? Was it Toothless?” Zephyr asked as she stared at the mouth of the waterfall and tried to climb the railing in a hopeless attempt to get closer.

“Where’s the dragon? Was it a Monstrous Nightmare? Uncle Snotlout said they’re the biggest, meanest, scariest dragon of them all! Five-thousand pounds of flaming muscle!” Nuffkin shouted while jumping in place in a fruitless attempt to see over the railing.

“I saw its shadow,” Hiccup answered as he plucked Zephyr away of the edge of the ship and set her back down on the deck. He scooped up Nuffkin and put him on his shoulders. “It was a Zippleback.”

“Barf and Belch?” Nuffkin asked.

“Like Barf and Belch, but I couldn’t see it,” Hiccup said. “You remember what mom and I said about dragons we couldn’t see?”

“If you can’t see it, don’t get near it,” both children recited and Hiccup wasn’t sure if it was possible to be prouder.

“That’s right,” Astrid replied as she picked up Zephyr, who had started to try and climb the railing again. “We’ll stay here a few more days, see if we get lucky. Maybe the Zippleback will get one of our dragons to come and investigate.”

Two days later Hiccup spotted a severe thunderstorm rolling in, and both he and Astrid, over the protests of two adventurous little Vikings, decided to head home early. Hiccup had a feeling, deep down in his bones, that the next trip would be the one. If the Zippleback had seen them as he had seen it through the fog, it would likely tell Toothless or one of their other dragons. And if their dragons realized they had found the Hidden World and were waiting for them at the entrance, it was inevitable that they would finally see each other again.

***********

+1

Toothless had always known, even as he’d flown away from Hiccup and forced himself not to look back, that it wasn’t a goodbye but a see you later. It was a truth he kept hidden and safe, tucked away near his heart and in his dreams. If his time with Hiccup had taught him anything, it was that humans were ingenuous in ways that dragons could never imagine. He understood that the Hidden World was only safe as long as humans could not spread the word about its existence, and that the only way to make sure of that was to defend its secret at all cost, to kill anyone who came too close to finding out the truth. It had taken a long time, but with the help of Cloudjumper and Stormfly, he had eventually wrangled the dragons into a semblance of a watch around the entrance of the waterfall. 

The most difficult part had been to make sure they understood that none of them were to kill on sight but to only observe and report back. These dragons were wild and their instincts demanded that they protect their home, and Toothless understood that. However, he also knew that one day Hiccup would come for him, and he refused to allow his dragons to kill him when that day finally arrived. And if every once in a while he flew out into the world in hopes of seeing a ship with familiar colors and familiar humans, none of the dragons questioned him about it. And if the dragons of Berk joined him in his vigil every once in a while, he appreciated their company and empathized with their longing to see their human companions again.

For several winters and summers, nothing happened. Every so often a merchant ship would stray a bit too close to the waterfall, but it always sailed away after a bit of trouble navigating around the waterfall. And then, one day, a Zippleback grumbled to other dragons about a ship anchored near the entrance. By the time Toothless heard about it and gone up to the surface to investigate, the skies had opened up and a storm had swept in, the sea flooding the entrance and gale winds lifting the water into large unruly waves. Toothless fought against the wind pushing him back, but he knew before he even reached the entrance, that the ship would be gone. No intelligent human would stay anchored in this storm and risk their ship and crew, and Hiccup was far from dumb.

There was nothing there to make him think that it had been Hiccup anchored by the entrance. Nothing except for some sort of instinct, some sort of… indescribable feeling, a pang in his heart and a whisper in the wind, telling him that it was. For days and nights after the ship had been spotted he waited by the entrance, hoping it might return. But when the nights turned longer and the days got colder, he knew their chance had passed for now.

As winter swept in and turned the weather around them stormy and icy, Toothless waited deep within the warmth of Hidden World for spring. Thankfully, this year he had something pleasant to distract him; three little somethings to be exact. He passed the colder months watching anxiously as his babies grew and finally opened their eyes, as they unfurled their wings and took their first uncertain wobbly steps. He watched as they spread their tiny wings and flopped on their bellies and plunged over cliffs as they learned how to fly. He watched as his mate taught them how to disappear within their own flames and hunt for their food. He watched and he waited.

When the colder and harsher air gave way to the warmer and floral scents of spring, Toothless started spending more time sitting on the rocks by the entrance to their home. Sometimes his mate would join him, alone or with the babies, spreading her gleaming wings to soak up the warmth of the sun and making sure none of the babes got swept up by the sea. Sometimes one of the other dragons of Berk would come and stare out to sea silently, waiting and watching the same as him. It seemed like the other dragons could feel it too, the impeding reunion between dragon and rider.

It felt like an eternity passed like this until, one day, Toothless heard a ship breaking through the waves of the sea. His head instinctively perked up at the noise and his mate beside him looked at him questioningly. He watched as the fog around them slowly cleared and the ship came into view. The design seemed familiar and he could see two adult shadows moving about it. Before his mate and the babies could move, he jumped from his rock and glided to the ship, gently landing on the head of a carved dragon on the bow of the ship. His gaze was drawn to the stern and he watched silently as two children cowered behind a female. The shape of her face and the color of her golden hair gave him pause, but movement from the male pulled his gaze away from them. 

The human before him was tall and broad with a full beard the color of his auburn hair. He was dressed in intricate leather armor with a bear skin hanging behind his back. He was familiar in a way that had Toothless’s heart beating wildly in his chest and every muscle in his body pulled taunt like a bowstring ready to snap. The man briefly glanced back at the other three humans before he slowly approached the dragon, one hand reaching out fearlessly toward him. He stopped a couple feet away from the Nightfury, and just as Toothless inched forward to sniff him, the human stretched out his arm and turned his head away, eyes closed and palm up, waiting for Toothless to come to him. 

For a fraction of a second, Toothless reeled back. The gesture was unforgettable and unmistakable, and in the next fraction, Toothless pounced.

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this fic after I read several Tumblr comments that complained that it was unrealistic that Hiccup would have waited 10 years, or that it took him that long, to see Toothless again. I started complaining to my friend about why, exactly, I thought 10 years was not only a totally plausible but also the most realistic timeline when one considered that, at the end of the movie, New Berk had no homes, no port, no ships, and Hiccup hadn't exactly been keeping track of his heading when Stormfly tracked Toothless to the Hidden World. She told me I should write a fic. Thanks Nusuth. :)


End file.
